Kyrgyz police servicemen

BISHKEK, January 15. /TASS/. Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security found an arms depot in the Jalal-Abad region, the authority’s press service said on Friday.

"The arms depot was found in the Jalal-Abad region during a counter-terrorist mission there," the Committee said. "There were a grenade launcher, over 6,000 ammunition of 5.45 and 7.62 millimeters."

During an investigation on the case, the intelligence service detained a Kyrgyz citizen, who "had arrived recently from the area of military actions in Syria."

"The detained had participated in a terrorist group, which was stopped in last July in Bishkek, which united citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan," the authority said in a statement.

The official reports say 508 citizens of Kyrgyzstan had left for Syria and Iraq to participate in the military actions there. The country’s 33 nationals were killed there, the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said earlier on Friday.

In late December, Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev told a news conference between 400 and 500 people had left Kyrgyzstan for Iraq and Syria to take part in the fighting in the ranks of international terrorist groups.

"However, the problem is not that they have left," he said. "The big problem is that they are returning." Atambayev believes that drastic measures should be taken against such persons. "It is necessary to pass a relevant law and to deprive such people of the republic’s citizenship," the president said. According to him, many countries are now using this practice, in particular, France.

"There should be no turning back for such people," Atambayev noted, since such people may try to "destabilize the situation" in Kyrgyzstan itself. "They (terrorists) are already moving to Afghanistan, and from there using roundabout paths they will come here too," he said. "So far, our intelligence agencies work well, but no one is safe from harm." According to him, intelligence agencies need more funds to effectively counter these threats. It is also necessary to increase citizens’ educational level, he said.